The plot of the game starts with Captain Syrup and her crew sneaking into Wario Castle while he's sleeping and make off with his treasure, as well as setting off his giant alarm clock and flooding the house by leaving the tap running. When Wario wakes up and realizes what they've done, he sets off on an adventure to reclaim his valuables.

The gameplay is much different from its predecessor — Wario is now completely immortal, and as such the worst enemies can do to him is alter his physical state for a while or cost him a few coins. These various transformations must be used to solve puzzles. In addition, there are several branching paths that can be unlocked, sometimes through unorthodox methods.

This game provides examples of:

All Just a Dream: The ending to Uncanny Mansion. Just as Wario is about to reclaim his treasure, the bridge beneath him breaks and he falls. The scene then changes to his bedroom where he rolls out of bed and wakes up. Surprisingly enough, this is not the one you get by failing to wake up at the start of the game.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Stay in bed in the first level, and the pirates sneak into Wario's room, drag him and dump him outside his castle without him ever waking up. Then they replace Wario's sigil with their own, and the plot is now about Wario reconquering his castle.

Bee Afraid: Aggressive Bee enemies in the forest stages swoop down trying to sting Wario, causing his head to swell up into a balloon if they do. A Giant Bee also serves at the chapter boss of Maze Woods.

Be the Ball: Dunk, the boss of the chapter "In Town". You stomp him to turn him into a basketball and have to throw him into the basket three times. This also happens to Wario and if Dunk touches him, he will slam dunk Wario for a point.

Bizarrchitecture: The technically second-to-last level, "Find the hidden door!!" is a disjointed cluster of rooms with almost no doors (though a surprising amount of windows). Turns out you have to break stone blocks all over the place to be able to proceed, culminating in an area that is two intertwined spirals, one leading to treasure and the other to the exit.

Blackout Basement: In some of the levels in "Go To The Cellar!!", several rooms have light switches that alternate with which rooms and hallways have light. If they're dark, you can't see the platforms or doors, forcing you to memorize the platform layout to get out of the room. You can still see Wario and the enemies though, to give you some sort of guide to where the platforms are in the darkness.

Book Ends: If you take the main story path, you'll begin in Wario Castle and end in Syrup Castle.

However, the chapter "Invade Wario Castle" is a more appropriate example. It begins with Wario being tossed out of the castle by the Black Sugar Gang after the alarm clock failed to wake him up, and it ends with Wario reclaiming his castle and going back to sleep.

Dummied Out: For some reason, an entire enemy (albeit rare) was Adapted Out of the Game Boy Color version, even though it has graphics and was coded on the original Game Boy version. It's a fish with sharp teeth that swims in a diagonal pattern, charges at Wario, and attempt to hold him down while chomp away at his coins until shaken off. It was replaced by more sawfish.

Eternal Engine: The "Escape From the Factory" story in the "In Town" Chapter. A secret exit leads to The Mysterious Factory chapter, where all of the levels are basically based on this.

Evil Tower of Ominousness: Syrup Castle again. This time, there's a whole five levels inside it (as with previous levels in the game), one of which is spent trying to find the entrance.

Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Wario has a giant snake in his castle's cellar, which he has to beat up. Why he has a giant snake (though maybe it's his pet), and why he has to beat it up is never explained.

Grey and Grey Morality: In a rare example in the Wario series, Wario isn't inadvertently saving the world from far greater evils by going on a treasure hunt, nor is Captain Syrup setting out to conquer it (as far as we know). Captain Syrup just takes revenge on Wario for the first game by stealing his treasure, and Wario of course wants it back. The whole game's plot basically boils down to "Terrible Trio Pirate Jerks steal a treasure from a greedy Jerk. Wacky Hijinks ensue."

Guide Dang It: There's no real indication of how to reach the first branching storyline (in which the Black Sugar Gang boots Wario out of his own castle), and the method is actually very different from other story branches (where you have to find a hidden exit). If it weren't required for 100% Completion, it would qualify as an Easter Egg.

Here We Go Again: After the All Just a Dream ending, the end credits, rather than showing Wario returning from his journey, instead show the pirates invading Wario Castle just as in the opening, indicating that the adventure is now going to happen for real.

Interface Spoiler: Even though you can't access the level select screen until you get one of the endings, just playing through the "main" chapters and noticing there being twice as many treasures and picture pieces as there are apparent levels doesn't add up.

Mook Lieutenant: A fair amount of these. First there's the Terrible Trio of Pirate Gooms who steal Wario's money and are repeatedly seen following Captain Syrup.

Then there's the four ducks that you kill at Syrup Castle. They aren't any more difficult to defeat than the regular D.D., but you do need to kill them in order to beat the level they are in.

Then there's the Giant Spear Man. He's much more bigger than the other mooks, even though he's still incredibly easy to defeat, but he's also the Recurring Boss of the game alongside Captain Syrup, and he's even the very last enemy that you face at the end of the game.

Morality Pet: Wario's pet hen, "Hen" appears to be one of the few things in the world besides money that he deeply cares about. While chasing the Black Sugar Gang, the pirates disturb Hen, causing her to flee from her nest. Wario deliberately cuts off the chase for his treasure just to help Hen and return her to her nest.

One True Sequence: Subverted; at first, you can only proceed from one level to the next, but after your first ending, you get a level select screen where you can revisit levels, find hidden exits leading to different levels and plot branches, and eventually earn all the endings.

Post-Climax Confrontation: By completing the entire map and completing every level in all the story branches, the game will continue on from the main ending to The Really Final Chapter, where Wario steals Syrup's treasure as payback, complete with a Post-Final Boss, the Recurring Boss Giant Spear Man.

Remixed Level: "Escape from the Tea Cup!" has the same layout as "Drop the anchor!," except it's flooded. The premise of the level is that Wario just sunk the SS Tea Cup to the bottom of the ocean and needs to, well, escape from it. The treasure is even located in the exact same place.

Ring Out Boss: Inverted: since Wario can't be killed, the only way for him to lose in a boss fight is for the boss to throw him out of the arena, often using a particular attack that instantly forces him away. This forces Wario to return to the boss arena for another try. Also played straight by the boss of the "Go to the cellar" levels. Taking the form of a minotaur, the only way to actually damage him is to ram into him while he's off balance at the edge of the arena, thus knocking him off.

Savage Setpiece: Little cyclopian creatures called "Gugis" sit perfectly still in locations with a happy little grin on their face and have no interest in Wario, but attacking or even touching one will make them freak out and attack. Certain rooms have these enemies deliberately placed in tight corridors, forcing Wario to wade his way through without disturbing them.

Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: In the Mysterious Factory, there are compactors laced with spikes that constantly smash up and down across conveyor belts.

Squashed Flat: One of Wario's amusing injury transformations. Getting smashed by a weight or a falling rock will turn Wario into Flat Wario. While flat, he can fall slowly and waddle through small crevices.

Underwater Ruins: The aptly named Ruins at the Bottom of the Sea, an alternate Chapter 3 unlocked by sinking the SS Tea Cup in the level "Drop the anchor!"

Updated Re-release: When the game was originally released, it was on the black-and-white Game Boy. This version only came out in the US and Europe; a Game Boy Color capable version was released in Japan, and this version was released to the rest of the world as well.

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